Dear Hollywood Whitewashers: Cameron Crowe (Aloha)

Hollywood has a long history of whitewashing Asian characters:  the horrifying yellowface of past decades, the near-total white-ification of screen adaptations of popular animes, the Asian erasure of real-life people in movies about them, and the shoehorning of white guys into samurai movies are just a few oft-used techniques, past and present.  Cameron Crowe’s rom-com Aloha became one of the most recent offenders on this front when Emma Stone was cast as Allison Ng, a mixed character of white, Chinese, and Hawaiian descent.

Now, the quote we’re looking at is actually from an apology letter Crowe posted on his blog after controversy about Stone’s casting blew up.  It’s not the sort of apology one would hope for – he extends the mea culpa to “all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice,” using fairly soft adjectives and focusing on people’s perception of the casting rather than agreeing that it was objectively wrong – but at the very least, he does seem to acknowledge the mistake and places the blame at his feet rather than Emma Stone’s.  But I digress – here’s the quote:

“As far back as 2007, Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud ¼ Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one.  A half-Chinese father was meant to show the surprising mix of cultures often prevalent in Hawaii.  Extremely proud of her unlikely heritage, she feels personally compelled to over-explain every chance she gets.  The character was based on a real-life, red-headed local who did just that.”

Okay, Cameron Crowe.  Character-wise, that’s all fine.  Granted, when the only prominent Hawaiian/Asian character in your movie set in Hawaii looks white, it’s not particularly cool, but the character itself is fine.  As you say, she’s based on a real-life person.  But do you know what that real-life person is?  Mixed.  Regardless of how she looks, she and her heritage is mixed.

So, you’ve neatly established for us that mixed people who look white exist.  It then stands to reason that mixed people who look white can be cast in movies, and that’s who you should have cast here.  When you’re talking about race and a long history of cinematic whitewashing and Asian erasure, it’s not just the look that’s important.  It’s so essential to recognize that actors of color have far fewer opportunities in Hollywood, and the absolute least that Hollywood can do is cast these actors in the roles that are written as PoC/mixed.

I get that you were specifically looking for an actress that didn’t look Asian, but you could have found one without hiring a white actress.  (After all, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zach on Saved by the Bell, is part Indonesian, and I don’t think many saw Zach as anything other than a white kid.)  Why not someone like Olivia Munn, or Chloe Bennet from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (altered hair color optional?)  Coincidentally, Bennet is a great example of why “the character’s supposed to looks white” isn’t a good enough reason to cast a white actress instead.  Back when she used her given name, Chloe Wang, she had a hard time getting roles, being told, “You’re not white enough to be a lead character, but you’re not Asian enough to have a best-friend role.”  While she’s now the lead in a genre show, it’s as Chloe Bennet (her father’s first name.)  White and mixed/PoC actors are not awarded the same opportunities, and so, when roles like this come along, it’s your duty as a person with power in Hollywood to fill them as they ought to be.